BEIJING – China has made major progress in developing its economy and eradicating rural poverty over the past year despite the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a New Year address Thursday.
China was the first major economy to register positive economic growth in 2020, with its gross domestic product expected to exceed 100 trillion yuan (almost $14 trillion) for the year, Xi said on nationwide television, speaking from behind his desk in his wood-paneled office.The International Monetary Fund forecast in October that China, the world’s second-largest economy, would grow 1.9% in 2020, a sharp slowdown from its 6.1% gain in 2019, and then expand 8.2% in 2021.That compares with an IMF forecast for a global economic.